February 2025 Poem-A-Day

Poem-a-Day, hosted by the Academy of American poets, is a podcast and daily poetry series delivering new work by contemporary poets to 500,000+ subscribers each morning.

Asked to curate weekdays during the month of February, I invited 20 BIPOC poets from a range of backgrounds to respond to the opening question of “Notes on Craft: Writing in the Hour of Genocide,” by the contemporary writer and performance artist, Fargo Nissim Tbakhi. The question:

“What does Palestine require of us, writers writing in English within the imperial core, in this moment of Genocide?”

As I explained in my guest editor interview, I didn’t expect any of these poets/poems to provide an answer. Instead, the poems that emerged from our shared contemplation provide a generous space to continue forming new questions.

You can read or listen to my full guest editor interview here.

A poem in response to my guest editor experience here.

February’s contributors and their poems:

m.s. RedCherries, Aldrin Regina Valdez, Youna Kwak, Lily Painter, Omar Berrada, Chibueze Crouch-Anyarogbu, MaKshya Tolbert, Mónica Alexandra Jiménez, Zaina Alsous, Kinsale Drake, W.J. Lofton, Benjamin Krusling, Raquel Gutiérrez, Justin Rovillos Monson, Diana Marie Delgado, Rachel Kyung-Joo Shin, Fargo Nissim Tbakhi, Poupeh Missaghi, and Andrea Abi-Karam